JERUSALEM, Sept 13 (Reuters) – Benjamin Netanyahu’s deputy
for intelligence and atomic affairs on Thursday broke with the
Israeli prime minister’s call for Iran to be confronted with a
“red line” beyond which its disputed nuclear programme would
face military attack.

In a broadcast interview, Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor
appeared to side with the United States in balking at
Netanyahu’s repeated demand that it set Iran an ultimatum or
risk seeing Israel launch region-rattling unilateral strikes.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – An Israeli cabinet minister on Tuesday invoked his country’s ostensibly secret 2007 air raid on an alleged Syrian nuclear reactor to suggest Israel could successfully strike Iran without U.S. support.

Israel has never formally acknowledged the bombing of the desert site at Deir al-Zor nor said what was destroyed – a precaution against drawing Syria into a retaliatory war, according to then-U.S. President George W. Bush, who in his memoir described the target as a nascent, North Korean-supplied reactor.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cancellation of a security cabinet session on Iran following a media leak last week laid bare a conundrum long troubling Israeli strategists: could they count on any element of surprise in a war on their arch-foe?

Possibly not. Years of public speculation, much of it stoked by official statements in Israel and abroad, about the likelihood and timing of such a conflict have afforded the Iranians plenty of notice to fortify their threatened nuclear facilities and prepare retaliation.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cancellation of a security cabinet session on Iran following a media leak last week laid bare a conundrum long troubling Israeli strategists: could they count on any element of surprise in a war on their arch-foe?

Possibly not. Years of public speculation, much of it stoked by official statements in Israel and abroad, about the likelihood and timing of such a conflict have afforded the Iranians plenty of notice to fortify their threatened nuclear facilities and prepare retaliation.

JERUSALEM, Aug 1 (Reuters) – Israel warned visiting U.S.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Wednesday that time was
running out for a peaceful settlement to the nuclear dispute
with Iran, saying sanctions and tough talk over possible
military action were failing to sway Tehran.

Speculation is rampant over whether Israel will make a
military strike against Iran to halt a nuclear programme that
the West suspects is aimed at building an atomic bomb but which
Tehran says is entirely peaceful.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel told visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Wednesday that time was running out for a peaceful settlement to the nuclear dispute with Iran because sanctions and tough talk over possible military action were failing to sway Tehran.

Speculation is rampant over whether Israel will make a military strike against Iran to halt a nuclear program that the West suspects is aimed at building an atomic bomb but which Tehran says is entirely peaceful.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel played down on Monday the risk from Syria’s chemical weapons, in what appeared to be a new tack after threats to take military action to prevent the arsenal falling into Islamist hands.

Israel has been particularly worried that Hezbollah, the Iranian-inspired Shiite militia in neighboring Lebanon, may gain access to the weapons should Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s grip slip amid a 16-month-old insurgency.

JERUSALEM, July 24 (Reuters) – The Syrian government is
still in full control of its chemical weapons stockpiles,
Israeli defence officials said on Tuesday, in an apparent bid to
calm fears that a non-conventional war could be looming.

Syria’s 16-month-old conflict has spread concern that the
chemical arsenal, acknowledged by Damascus for the first time on
Monday, could fall into the hands of Hezbollah, the Lebanese
Islamist group allied to Iran and Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad, or that Assad could use then in a desperate last
stand.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israelis remain mostly opposed to any unilateral attack by their country on Iran even if international diplomatic pressure fails to curb its nuclear programme, an opinion poll suggested on Friday.

The survey commissioned by Maariv newspaper found only 19 percent of Israelis would support the go-it-alone strikes threatened by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conservative government, while 26 percent thought military action should be taken – but only with U.S. backing.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel signaled on Thursday it would not hasten into any open conflict with Iran or its Lebanese guerrilla ally Hezbollah despite blaming them for a deadly attack on its citizens in Bulgaria.

A suicide bomber killed eight people on a bus carrying Israeli tourists in Burgas airport, drawing a pledge by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “react powerfully” to what he called “Iranian terror”.